


Consequences be Damned

by the_technicolor_whiscash



Series: The New Travels of Rose and the Doctor [4]
Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Exploring the TARDIS, F/F, Some Fluff, Time for Even More Pining, a vente size cup of pining, like a steaming cup of pining, we’re almost at the end kids
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-29
Updated: 2018-10-29
Packaged: 2019-08-09 09:56:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,841
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16447643
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/the_technicolor_whiscash/pseuds/the_technicolor_whiscash
Summary: Rose has been on the Tardis for three days, and has had horrible nightmares every time she tries to sleep. So, instead of sleeping, she decides to see just what this new Tardis has to offer.





	Consequences be Damned

**Author's Note:**

> This one took me SO LONG to figure out a title for and i have no idea why???

Darkness. The sound of feet on concrete. An army of plastic. 

The feeling of a warm hand gripping hers. A voice whispering, “Run!”

It changes. Daleks. The screams of the dying. All those lost on Satellite Five. Captain Jack, crying out before collapsing. Dead. 

The bright light from the Tardis’s core. The bad wolf. Everything disappears. 

The Daleks return. Stronger. Ever more terrifying. Alongside Cybermen. Armies of metal and mutated flesh, ripping holes in the universe. 

Rose is holding on to the lever. She feels her fingers slip, hears someone yell her name. Darkness again. 

Rose awakens in a cold sweat. This was her third night in the Tardis, and her third night having some kind of a nightmare. She thought that their excursions in ancient Mesopotamia and far in the future on a planet named Steve would have stopped them, but instead, they had been getting worse. Rose was beginning to fear falling asleep. 

She sat up in bed and checked her phone. A text from her mum, asking where a phone charger was. Some likes on her twitter page. A news blurb. Nothing exceptional. 

She slid out of bed and slipped on her slippers, heading down the hall. The Tardis was arranged much differently from how she had remembered it, but it usually wasn’t too hard to find where she was looking for. It only took her a few minutes to find the kitchen. 

For a spaceship, the kitchen was always well stocked. There was a range, and a fridge, and a microwave, should anyone get the urge to cook. She did not, and instead settled on some s’mores pop tarts which she ate while standing at the kitchen island. 

Rose hadn’t told the Doctor about her nightmares yet. She knew the Doctor would fuss about it, and Rose didn’t want that. The nightmares would go away eventually. Really, they were just rehashing old memories. And not all of them were bad. Meeting the Doctor for the first time, that was a blessing. She wouldn’t trade it for the world. The danger just came with the territory. 

Wiping the crumbs off of her hands, she threw the empty wrapper into the trash and headed off down the hall. The last three nights when she had been unable to sleep, she simply sat on her phone until either she fell asleep again or it was time to get up. But tonight, she decided to explore. This was a whole new Tardis. Who knew what she would find?

Some of the halls were long, taking several minutes to reach the end of, while others were no longer than a single stride. And most of the rooms were used as storage closets of varying sizes. One was vast, the size of a football field, but only contained a single couch. Another was about a meter square, packed to the brim with electrical parts. One was filled with what Rose could only assume were chamber pots. Another had a row of China cabinets that contained hundreds of identical plates. 

By the time an hour had gone by, Rose had visited dozens of rooms. And she was beginning to get tired again. She quickly realized that she couldn’t go back the way she came, as the way she came twisted and wound so many times that there was no possible way she could figure out how. Instead, she settled with going in the same general direction from which she came. A few halls, she recognized, but many were completely new. In these new halls, there were even more new rooms. A second kitchen, she found, as well as the wardrobe. 

A few minutes later, she found the Doctor. In a room that looked quite like a workshop, the Doctor was leaned over a workbench, soldering something with a pair of chunky goggles on. 

Without making her presence known, Rose crept further into the room. It looked like the Doctor was working on her sonic screwdriver. It was a funny looking thing, that new sonic. But then again, Rose had no real idea what a sonic was supposed to look like, beyond what the Doctor’s previous regenerations had had. A nice color, though. It suited this new Doctor. 

Rose often had to remind herself that this was still the Doctor. It was the same problem she had had the first time she witnessed the Doctor regenerate. A confliction, that even though they’re still the same person, they’re quite different. A different person, with different tastes, different emotions, but all those same memories. The Doctor still remembered what had happened that first day they met. The day Rose first saw them regenerate. The day they met at Bad Wolf Bay, when the Doctor was about to say something, but disappeared before they could. 

Rose felt sadness welling within her. Things would, and already had been, far different between them. Their chemistry was just different. It would take an enormous amount of adjusting, on both parts, to them travelling together again. And it didn’t help that Rose, despite all her best efforts, was still very much in love with the Doctor. Every time the Doctor grabbed her hand, every time they parted for the night for their respective rooms, Rose felt as though someone had carved a gaping hole in her chest. She was in love, a deep, unrequited love, and there was nothing she could do about it. 

Just as she was about to leave, the Doctor spoke. “Can’t sleep?”

Rose felt herself blush. Clearly her attempts to not be noticed failed. “Not really.”

“I know the feel. Truth be told, I don’t sleep that much anymore. Helps that I don’t really need it as a Time Lord.”

Hesitantly, Rose approached the Doctor’s workbench, the Doctor not looking up from her sonic. “Isn’t it technically Time Lady, now?”

“Ah, gender is a construct. Besides, using two different phrases makes things too confusing. What would I be called if I regenerated with a dog head? A Time Dog? A Dog Lord?”

Rose smiled. “I still don’t believe that’s possible.” 

“It is! Friend of mine back on Gallifrey once regenerated with a humanoid body, but with both a dog head and a tail.” The Doctor smirked. “They actually rather hated it, and I can see why. Really funny, though, after the fact.”

“Like an embarrassing phase you go through in high school.”

“Exactly.” The Doctor put down her soldering iron and pushed the goggles up onto her forehead. There was a smudge of grease across her cheek, and she looked completely adorable. “So how come you can’t sleep?”

Rose sighed. She really didn’t want the Doctor to worry, but she also hated lying to her. “I’ve been having nightmares ever since my first night on the Tardis. They’re usually about things that have happened in the past, like with the Daleks and whatnot. It’s nothing to fuss about, I’m sure they’ll go away.”

The Doctor, naturally, looked concerned. “That is odd, though, that you would have them all three nights.” She picked up the sonic and scanned Rose. “Well, nothing seems different. Maybe they are just normal nightmares.”

Rose raised an eyebrow. “As opposed to?”

“The Tardis, doing something with your brain. I still don’t entirely know the old girl’s reaction towards humans yet, not with this new face of hers.” 

“Oh, that’s reassuring.”

“Don’t worry.” The Doctor clasped Rose’s hands in hers. The Doctor was wearing a pair of work gloves, and they were rough against Rose’s skin. “I’ll get this figured out, and you’ll be back to sleeping normally in a jiffy.”

God, Rose wanted to kiss her. She was just so earnest, so sweet. Rose couldn’t suppress the bashful smile that passed across her face. “I know. Thank you, Doctor.”

“Of course. Anything for you, Rose.” She passed it off as an offhand comment, but it only made Rose love her more. But before the moment could get anywhere else, the Doctor let go of Rose’s hands and returned her attention to the sonic screwdriver. “I think I’ve just about got this thing figured out, but it’s not making the noise I want it to make.”

“I’ll leave you to that, then. Good night, Doctor.”

“Good night, Rose.” 

The Doctor was so engrossed in her screwdriver that she didn’t notice the look of longing Rose gave her as she walked out of the room. 

Rose knew she wouldn’t be sleeping again tonight. She would toss and turn, consumed by the fact that the Doctor didn’t seem to love her back. Not anymore, anyway. Back in the day, she was sure the Doctor loved her. And she loved them. But back then, she hadn’t said anything because they were too busy, and before she knew it she was stuck in a universe that wasn’t her own. 

Instead of going back to her room, she went to the console room. The Tardis still had that familiar hum, that almost sounded like a heartbeat. She sat down in the lawn chair she had zip-tied to the floor and closed her eyes, listening to the Tardis. Before she knew it, she was asleep. 

The first dreamless sleep she had had in days. 

She awoke with a jolt and checked her watch. Apparently she had only been asleep for an hour. At least she felt more well rested. 

Standing, Rose slowly rolled her neck, hearing the satisfying cracks from her joints. A lawn chair is not exactly the best place to take a nap in. 

“Was wondering how long you’d last in that chair.” The Doctor’s voice spoke from… somewhere. 

Rose looked around. She had no idea where the Doctor’s voice was coming from, until she looked down and saw the Doctor’s legs sticking out from the inside of the console. “What’re you doing in there?”

“There’s something that sounds like it’s clanging around in here, and I want to see what it is. Probably a screw that came loose or something. Luckily, I have small hands now. Lets me reach into the little nooks and crannies I couldn’t get with man hands.”

“Need any help?”

“Actually, if you happen to have a flashlight on you, that would be great.”

Rose pulled out her phone and turned on the flashlight. The Doctor reached a hand out from under the console, and Rose passed it to her. 

“Thanks much.” The Doctor said. “Impossible to see down here, even with my advanced eyesight.”

“Sure.”

A ping sounded, the alert tone from Rose’s phone. “Oh, you got a text. Who’s Tony?”

Rose felt herself go pink. “A fellow I know. Owns a chip shop.”

“He says ‘want to go to dinner on Friday?’ With the number 2 in place of the word.” 

Rose almost groaned. “Text him back, tell him sorry, but I’m kind of busy at the moment.”

“You sure? I can take you back if you want.”

“No!” She realized how quickly it had come out, and took a breath to regain her bearings. “I mean, I like him as a friend and all, he’s nice, but I don’t want to date him. This is definitely my mum’s doing. She’s been on me trying to get me to date anyone for months now.”

“Why haven’t you?”

“There hasn’t been anyone I’ve been interested in, really. And with anyone I was interested in, things ended after the first date. Either they weren’t feeling it, or they turned out to be a douchebag and I decided to call it off. Once, we were halfway through a date, at a movie theater of all places, and she gets a call, leaves to go answer it, and doesn’t come back.”

“She?”

Rose realized the Doctor didn’t know that Rose was bi. Back when they were first travelling, she didn’t even know, not really, and it just hadn’t come up until now. “Yep. She.”

“Good for you. What movie was it?”

A quick change of the subject. What did that mean? “The Shape Of Water, embarrassingly enough.”

“Oh, that was a good one. Guillermo’s an artist.”

“You say that like you know him personally.”

“How do you know I don’t? I know a lot of famous people. Get accidentally married to a shocking number of them. Marilyn Monroe, for example.”

Rose laughed. “You really do get around, don’t you?”

“You could say that. Oh, he sent a text back. Says ‘you free next week?’ I don’t think he quite got the message.”

“Tell him I like him as a friend, but I don’t want to go out with him.”

“Rose Tyler, professional heartbreaker.”

“Oi, it’s not my fault I don’t want to date him! And besides, sometimes he ‘forgets’ to wear deodorant, and covers it up with that awful body spray stuff that 13 year olds like to douse themselves in. That’s a dealbreaker.”

“Isn’t that a bit harsh?”

“No, it’s perfectly reasonable. He’s going on thirty! I don’t want to be snogging someone and get hit by a noseful of body spray that gives me flashbacks to middle school!”

“Now, that I can understand. Middle school is everyone’s darkest time.” She paused. “He sent another text. He says, ‘why not?’”

Rose sat back down in the lawn chair heavily. “The audacity of this man. Tell him, because I’m not into him, and that’s that.”

“Alright, laying down the law. Text sent.” The Doctor shifted beneath the console. She yelped, “finally!” before sliding out, hair covered in a thin layer of dust, triumphantly holding both Rose’s phone and the screw. “I got the little bugger. I knew it was a screw. The next question is, what did this go to?”

“We’ll find out when something falls off.”

The Doctor put the screw down on the console and handed Rose’s phone back to her. “Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that. Did Tony send a response?”

Rose checked her phone. “Yes, he says, ‘that’s stupid.’ Wow.” She put her phone down onto the arm of the chair. “I don’t even know what to say to that.”

“Tell him that if he’s not going to give you a civilized response, then don’t even bother texting.” The Doctor shook some of the dust out of her hair, tousling it even more than it already had been. Before Rose registered what she was doing, she had brushed a lock of hair out of the Doctor’s face. Returning to that comfortable normalcy they had had all those years ago. 

“I like it. Makes him seem stupid in response.” Rose quickly texted back the Doctor’s suggested response. “I guess he wasn’t as nice as I thought he was.”

“Well, men are pigs.”

“Even though you were a man for the majority of your regenerations.”

“That’s how I know! Men are the worst, even to other men. It’s a wonder they haven’t eradicated themselves off the planet yet.”

“I mean, they’re not all bad. Mickey was sweet, and Captain Jack was… Captain Jack.”

“He certainly was. They’re not all bad, of course. Just many of them are. You really have no idea how hard women have it until you become one. Let me tell you, people don’t take me nearly as seriously as when I was walking around in a suit.”

“Sexism is alive and well. You were usually pretty good with treating women equally, though.”

“Not in some of my earlier regenerations.”

Rose raised an eyebrow. “Do tell.”

“Oh yeah. Back in the day, when I was spending a lot of time in the 60’s, I could be downright rude. And I didn’t even realize it until I accidentally met myself from the past in my last regeneration. My first regeneration was such a dick to my friend Bill, I almost couldn’t believe it.” The Doctor crossed her arms. “Thank goodness times have changed.”

“You’re not kidding. Remember back when we met Queen Victoria?”

“Oh yeah, and when everyone kept calling you a wild child because you were wearing shorts?” The Doctor laughed, a sweet, rich laugh that positively melted Rose’s insides. 

“Exactly. So glad things have changed since then.” 

They fell into silence. It wasn’t a nice silence, like what used to happen between them. It was a silence filled with unsaid things, with pent up tension coming from both sides. From that silence, Rose felt a spark of courage. 

“Listen, Doctor, there’s–“

Before she could say anything, her phone rang. It was her mum. 

“Shit.” She muttered. “Sorry, I’ve got to take this.”

“Do what you have to.” 

Rose headed down the hall, phone in hand. Leave it to her mother, to call right when something important was about to happen. Or, at least, hopefully it was important. Not like it was going to happen now, as Jackie was a notoriously wordy talker. 

But Rose had made up her mind. She had to tell the Doctor how she felt. She needed to let it go, or else she would regret it for the rest of her life. 

Rose had to tell the Doctor that she loved her. Consequences be damned.

**Author's Note:**

> We’re almost at the end of this series kids! One more fic to go, and it’ll be wrapped up. That is, unless I decide to write more. Which is a distinct possibility.


End file.
